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Tom Szasz died on September 8, 2012. I met him in the early 1990s, when he was in Cambridge to participate in a symposium on drug policy. Keep in mind, please, that what I know about public policy, psychiatry and the War on Drugs could fit into a teaspoon. Mark asked me to help him [...]
Archive for the ‘Libertarianism’ Category
September 15th, 2012
Category: Civil liberty, Drug Policy, Health and Medicine, Human rights, Libertarianism, Mental illness, Uncategorized
March 8th, 2012
Category: Libertarianism
Has at last been topped in the annals of libertarian hypocrisy by Cato Institute staff whining about being eaten alive by billionaires. Taste the freedom of the market fellas.
January 5th, 2012
Category: Intellectual disability, Libertarianism
Congressman Paul’s unfortunate newsletters should not blind us to the deeper message of his candidacy.
November 15th, 2011
Libertarians and conservatives have become fond of calling the individual mandate totalitarian–or at least a gross and unconscionable deprivation of individual liberty. But if so, why are they so comfortable with the prospect of courts finding it unconstitutional only when the *federal* government imposes it?
October 2nd, 2011
Hit & Run’s Tim Cavanaugh to “unemployees”: if you don’t like being discriminated against in job searches, get a job before you start.
July 1st, 2011
Category: Anti-atheist bigotry, Libertarianism
We should by all means inform people about all the reasons Ayn Rand’s philosophy is distasteful. That she didn’t believe in God is, pace the “American Values Network,” not one of them.
June 15th, 2011
Category: Energy and Environment, Libertarianism
Libertarians often say that public lands should be handed over to the private sector, which has an incentive to conserve them. But doesn’t the same logic that leads them to hate teachers’ unions also imply that forest rangers will do anything to preserve the forests that provide their cushy jobs?
February 17th, 2011
Can the assertion “Government is too big [or too small]” ever mean enough to support a serious conversation, much less a policy decision? How about “California [or the US; plug in your own jurisdiction larger than a small town] can’t afford [plug in a program]“? What could such statements mean, or be shorthand for?
February 6th, 2011
Category: Affordable Care Act, Libertarianism
Judge Roger Vinson calls the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional, citing (among other things) this ReasonTV video.